The in-vitro culture and separation of interferon is well established in the art. The fundamental process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,222 - A. Isaacs et al., Oct. 17, 1972. However, in the prior art production techniques very critical preparation of tissue used to culture the interferon has limited production and necessitated close and careful controls. For example, leukocytes, lymphoblasts and fibroblasts must be carefully prepared before the interferon culture process can begin in the most prominent and successful types of in-vitro interferon culture, as for example, set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,266,024 - P. Swetly, May 5, 1981 or 4,198,479 - A. A. Tytell et al., Apr. 15, 1980.
In these prior art in-vitro culture processes various sorts of interferon inducer substances are known and new ones are being developed as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,892 - N. Ishida et al., July 21, 1981. Also steps taken in purification or isolation of the cultured interferon is known in the art as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,344 - A. A. Schwartz, Aug. 17, 1976.
It has been considered in the past that interferon could only be made in-vitro with leukocytes isolated from blood and not with whole blood.
Thus, the prior art has necessitated the expensive and time consuming steps of deriving from blood by centrifuging and precipitation in the presence of expensive chemical and biological materials selected cells, e.g. leukocytes.
Furthermore, in the prior art production of interferon many refining steps are required to recover the interferon. These steps are also expensive and time consuming.
Also the interferon thus produced by prior art techniques need be carefully administrated to patients requiring expert skills as to proper dosages and conditions of administration.
It is therefore an objective of this invention to provide improved, simplified methods of producing interferon that are adaptable to large scale production with the product available in a ready to use range of interferon containing preparations suitable for instant use or storage, as the case may require. Other objects, features and advantages will be found throughout the following description, drawings and claims.